What are you reading now and next?

[LaSoiDisantDame]

P;ease indulge my nosiness

haven't seen one of these threads for a while, & love scanning them for future reads.

I am reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Dickens) & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest(Ken Kesey) Find msyelf swapping these two around according to my concentration levels but enjoying them both in different ways

On my To Read Next Pile is Revelation (C.J Samson -loved the first three), A Prayer for Owen Meany and This Thing of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

But I know when I;ve read two of those I will panic & need new ideas. Help!

I am currently reading A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris having just read Real Murders in her Aurora Teagarden mysteries series.

This should get me through to christmas when I will have pretty much every book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

On the bedside table are: Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, and The Murder Room by PD James. I have maanged to read one chapter of each so am currently reading Observer Food Monthly instead. But to help with inspiration, some recent very successful reads have been The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orzcy (loved it!) and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke. And if all else fails there's always Jill's Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson. Happy reading!

Janeite, are you still reading Half of a Yellow Sun? I have her short stories from the library, will probably try to acquire my own copy at some point as I loved the novels.

Jux, why should you be embarrassed at reading dd's books? My mum and aunt regularly read mine when I was a child, in fact my aunt has borrowed 2 books from my children's shelves recently.

LaSoi, I loved Northern Lights and have the whole trilogy on audio, listened to the other two that way. I should read them all again in print. So mamy books to read.

Timesofhope, Charlaine Harris's work is also something I need to catch up on - I've read the first 3 Sookie books some time ago (Club Dead just after DS1 was born in May 2007) and have the other 5 though I would need to find 4-6 among the chaos. I just bought 7 and 8 but I felt the need to own them in the US mass market pre TV editions that would go with my others and are much nicer covers. I've read Real Murders and the first Lily Bard book (don't know if you've seen those) with Shakespeare in the title - I have 4 more Lily Bards and at least 3 Aurora Teagardens (there are about 8 I think and the later ones are harder to find). And one in a newer series too, Grave Sight. DP likes the True Blood ones too as he's into vampire fiction.

Since I last posted on this thread I've read Jonathan Coe - The Accidental Woman, Anne Tyler - Noah's Compass and Roddy Doyle's short story collection - The Deportees - all courtesy of my library pile which is suddenly out of hand again. I was impressed by all of them.

I'm now reading Margaret Atwood's new book, also thanks to the library.

Next will probably be a book I'm reviewing for a website by an American writer called Joe Meno. It's his 4th novel at least, but the first from big publishers and to be published in the UK as well as the US.

Will finish 'Half Of A Yellow Sun' tonight. Am absolutely loving it but haven't had much time for reading in the last week or so, so it's taking much longer than usual.

I found when I was reading Yellow Sun that I had to reread bits again quite carefully to keep track of the historical background, so it needed quite careful reading. I also loved Purple Hibiscus.

Just finished it and enjoyed it v much; a bit disappointed with the ending though - but I guess it had to be so.

What is Purple Hibiscus about?

I have just started Jane Austen's Emma which I have never read before but which is already like sinking into a big marshmallow.

I don't have a pile, I have a bookcase full of presents, impulse Amazon buys and charity shop finds that I plough through slowly (I used to whizz pre-children!). I try to rotate the "type" of book and choose a random letter from the last page of my current book to choose the author of my next. As it will be Christmas though, I will treat myself to a detective/thriller I think.

Marshmallow in a good way? I always envy people reading a JA for the first time. Hope that nobody was put off 'Emma' by the appalling recent TV version.

I did see the film made a few years ago (was it Gwyneth Paltrow??) but already the book is so much better. Only problem is that it is a cheap edition so the font is tiny and soporific!

Purple Hibiscus is Ngozi Adichie's first novel and it's a sort of bildungsroman about a young woman growing up, and the relationships within her family, particularly those of her father in the family and beyond. I found it very powerful reading though quite disturbing in places.

I'm about to start reading a collection of her short stories, as I've nearly finished Atwood's The Year of the Flood and I needed a smaller spare book in my bag to take to work (my planned next read is a very thick trade paperback advance reading copy) and the Atwood book is a largish library hardback.

Thank you. What did you think to the Atwood? I haven't read it yet.

The Gwynnie 'Emma' was hideous but even that looked like a work of genius compared to the recent TV one.

The Atwood is really interesting, it's a sort of follow up to Oryx and Crake but I liked it much better. O & C was brilliantly done but I found a novel without interaction between living humans a bit lacking in what I find most interesting, whereas in The Year of the Flood the main characters spend time on their own but there's actually quite a cast of characters. I'm going to have to get O & C down as I read it quite quickly after it came out (I go through spells of seeking out bunches of newly published books from the library and other times when I don't get any at all).

Thank you. Dp brought me a Georgette Heyer from the library today, so that will be my guilty pleasure in the bath tonight!

Just started Lord of the Rings and plan to tackle War and Peace after that. Not sure about after that as I haven't planned out my 2011 reading yet

Bit of light reading there Buddleja?

Reading Trainspotting now, think I'm going to re-read Clan of the Cave Bear next.

lol kaloki - I've decided to make 2010 the year I read the 'big' books I've always said I'd read - I've started not just to get a head start so to ensure I finish in 2010!!

Mine you there is a chance I will accidentally forget I planned to read War and Peace and pick up a chick lit instead

I keep meaning to read War and Peace, I'm determined to read all the "classics". Maybe I'll pick it up soon and join you.

If you like Dickens then you'll enjoy War and Peace. (I had to read it for my degree (Russian) so have read it in Russian as well as English, and love it.)

War and Peace is on my Must Read list too Buddleja, although I did enjoy Anna Karenina so I'm hoping that's a good sign

We share a guilty secret Janeite as I like a bit of Heyer!

finished The Amber Spyglass earlier this week which was good but I felt couldn't live up to the first two as much, felt he went off the boil a bit with the Mulefa stuff and so much of it was so sad - had to put it down for a while when Lyra had to leave Pan and then when she had to leave Will! - I know some people love books that make them cry but I avoid that if I can, I is just a wimp obviously

Have now started The Journals of Sylvia Plath as I have to do some coursework on her poetry and thought it might give me some insight. It looked innocent enough on Amazon but has turned out to be quite a weighty tome - so see you in about six months!

Agree totally re the mulefa stuff - this is why the books are good but not stunning imho. The whole 3rd book is marred by too long a section messing around with sap and horses on wheels. Fabbo ending though.

Agree r.e the ending Janeite, and thanks for your reccy

Am now reading the latest 'mistressof the art of death' mediaeval who-dunnit. Can't remember what it's called or who it's by but am liking it so far.

Finished it - it was good. The writer is Ariana Franklin.

Just finished Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs - it's a grim memoir of his relationship with his father, but so well written, and with a subtle kind of humour, that it manages to not be depressing.

I might read Twilight next, because I bought it for DD1 for Christmas but have decided it's probably a bit old for her.

I recently read Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta and it is brilliant, I'll have to hunt down her other book(s) now..could be expensive but my mum usually gets me a juicy book token for Christmas